Nasdaq Study Confirms Microsoft Windows NT Server Can Support Monitoring a Four Billion Share Day

Business Wire, Dec 7, 1998

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 1998--A major benchmarking initiative by the Nasdaq Stock Market(R), Micro Modeling Associates (MMA) and Unisys Corporation has demonstrated that the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system can support Nasdaq's mission-critical, real-time system to facilitate regulatory oversight of intraday market activity.

As part of its investigation into the capabilities of Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition, Nasdaq(R) engaged Unisys Corp, a global management consultant and systems integrator, and MMA, a leading business technology consulting firm, to develop a proof-of-concept benchmark on the Windows NT platform.

The tests were used to gauge the feasibility of developing Nasdaq's new Surveillance Delivery Real-Time (SDR) application for the Nasdaq MarketWatch department. Through monitoring and alert detection, SDR provides information that will allow MarketWatch to maintain a level playing field for investors and protect the integrity of the marketplace. SDR analyzes quote, trade and news transactions and sends an alert to MarketWatch analysts for review.

The increase in market activity has necessitated an overhaul of MarketWatch technology to support four billion daily transactions or 800 transactions per second. "Billion share days are becoming increasingly common, stressing our existing surveillance system. Any new system also will need to be able to support a two billion share day with the capacity to scale up to support a four billion share day," said Gregor S. Bailar, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD(R)) - the parent of the Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.

"This is a big strategic win for Nasdaq and Microsoft, as this is the first commercial Windows NT-based system to conquer such high transaction volume," said David Osborne, MMA's Chief Technology Officer. "A lot of trading firms are evaluating Windows NT 4.0 for its known price/performance value. This is the first tangible proof that high-volume performance demands can be met with Windows NT." MMA, a leading expert in building innovative financial solutions, provided software architecture, design and development services.

The Study and Results

Before committing to run SDR on Windows NT, Nasdaq wanted to be 100 percent certain that the operating system would meet its exacting availability and performance requirements. Therefore, the benchmark was conducted using an actual day's trading, with two parallel systems processing the same data.

The study:

-- Demonstrated to Nasdaq managers that Windows NT could support peak

conditions over an extended period. The test involved running 800

transactions per second continuously for an equivalent of 8

trading days. -- Provided analysts with alerts within 200 to 700 milliseconds, well

within the 2-second requirement. -- Showed that the system could remain 100 percent available, even

under stress. During the test, utilization averaged 15 percent. -- Demonstrated instant recovery from all failure tests with no data

loss and immediate availability of the backup system.

The benchmarking effort significantly exceeded all of its goals. Nasdaq's Director of Architecture Ed Flynn remarked, "SDR is a highly intuitive, fail-safe system. This is the best instrumented benchmark system I've ever seen."

The total Microsoft platform consisted of Windows NT 4.0 Server Enterprise Edition, Microsoft Message Queue Server 1.0, Microsoft Transaction Server 2.0, and Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) evaluated the proposed system architecture and coordinated support from Microsoft's product groups in Redmond, Washington. The Unisys hardware included Unisys XR/6 enterprise servers with 10 processors and 2 gigabytes of memory, running in parallel. The benchmark was conducted at the Unisys/Microsoft Enterprise NT Center of Excellence in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

"The Nasdaq benchmark study shows that Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition can scale up to meet the needs of even these demanding transactional and surveillance systems," said Edmund Muth, Enterprise Marketing Group Manager, Microsoft Corporation. "When Windows 2000 Server is available, we expect to see even higher throughput and reliability for our high end data center customers."

In addition to supplying hardware, Unisys managed the development of the benchmark and provided architectural design and performance consulting. "This benchmark proves conclusively that Windows NT 4.0 can be used in high-volume transaction applications," said Paul Rachal, Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise NT Services, Unisys Corporation. "Our ClearPath enterprise servers are used to handle all stock quotation transactions for The Nasdaq Stock Market, managing record-setting billion-share days without difficulty. We knew how to build a system around Windows NT that could handle the transaction volumes Nasdaq expected for SDR."

MMA Takes On The Next Step

The benchmark study provided Nasdaq with the evidence needed to move ahead with Microsoft NT Server Enterprise Edition as the architecture to support the next generation of MarketWatch systems. MMA has been retained to begin the technical design phase of the new SDR system, expected to be fully implemented in the year 2000.